The programme Talking Point met three children and their families to find out how their living environment in public rental housing might affect their learning potential and mental health.
SINGAPORE: Every weekend, whilst she imagines other teenagers may be sleeping in or going out with their families, Wan Nur Wardina will be doing all the household chores in the morning.
The teen, who is now at the Institute of Technical Education, sometimes also gets “stressed about finances”, for example when she has “no money to buy food”. She started working during the school holidays two years ago, delivering parcels. When he gave Munah a tour of his flat, he remarked that there might not be enough space in the bedroom with his parents in future. “Because I’ll grow taller and taller. When I’m older, I’d like a big bedroom.”
If her friends were to ask, the 13-year-old, who has lived in a rental flat since birth, would “say no because there’s nothing to do” or say that her parents do not allow it. Besides their concern about space, she said they experience “loss of control” as they think “nothing much that I can do can change the situation” — which can lead to “self-esteem issues”.No specific study has been done on the learning potential and emotional well-being of children who have spent their lives in public rental housing.
In fact, all three children “showed indicators of behavioural issues, such as stress arising from academic performance”. Yeo said: “ also worried a lot about the future. They’ve struggled with … self-esteem. They worry about how others perceive them.” And when they can’t concentrate … that itself can cause stress, especially for Vivian. She wants to do well.”“When children are assigned responsibilities at a very much younger age … that itself can be quite stressful for them, plus having to balance your schoolwork,” Yeo said. “It can cause, over time, accumulated stress … or depression.
She finds the rooms “very big”, and although she has weekly study-buddy sessions, she no longer must share her study space as she did with her two siblings. “ happy, because now things won’t get lost so easily,” she said.One of the new things she is excited about learning is coding, and things are looking up. “ a good opportunity here, and can help guide her where she wants to go,” said her mother, Santi Chong.
“Programmes aren’t cast in stone. We’ll modify them, evaluate them and include other aspects — so we do intend to be quite comprehensive in the way we explore what works best with these kids.” “There are individual programmes that help them with studies, like tuition. There are programmes that help them with other activities but not consolidated in one place nor … done by the same, consistent group of people.”Many other rental flat children, however, do not have access to a structured programme like at=Dreams. And for the parents of Hai Feng and Wardina, parts of their children’s test results were worrying.
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